2004 Arkhangelsk explosion
On March 16, 2004, an explosion destroyed a corner section of a nine-story Soviet-era apartment building in Arkhangelsk, Russia. It happened at 3:03 a.m. local time. The explosion occurred in 120 Avenue of the Soviet Cosmonauts in the October district of Arkhangelsk.
The death toll from the explosion was 58. Two of the dead soccumbed to their wounds in a hospital after being rescued.
The explosion came two days after Vladimir Putin won reelection and several weeks after a suicide bombing killed 41 Moscow subway passengers.
In April 2004, authorities arrested and charged 26-year-old former employee of city gas services Sergey Alekseychik. On December 16, 2005 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. According to the official version, Alekseychik was fired from his natural gas technician job several days prior to the explosion, and to get even with his former employers and the city he sabotaged the gas system thus causing the tragedy.
